title: Desiccation sensitivity and cryopreservation of Korean ginseng seeds.
abstract: Korean ginseng germplasm is maintained as clonal germplasm since there is no practical method for long-term seed conservation. The aim of this study was to establish a cryopreservation protocol for Korean ginseng seeds. Desiccation of undehisced ginseng seeds to a moisture content (MC) of 7.1 % did not decrease their dehiscence and germination. After cryopreservation, the dehiscence percentage of desiccated seeds decreased for MC above 12.5%; it was 26% for 22.6% seed MC and nil for 41.9% seed MC. Germination percentage did not decrease significantly between 12.5-22.6% seed MC, while germination percentage of dehisced seeds decreased below 7.2% MC, reaching 25.8% at 3.8% MC. After cryopreservation, the germination percentage decreased from 90.5-92.9% at 8.3-10.6% MC to 84.8% at 12.5% MC. At MCs below 8.3%, germination rapidly decreased from 85.0% at 7.2% MC to 34.9% at 5.3% MC. Therefore, the hydration window for cryopreservation of ginseng seeds is around 8-11% MC. Undehisced Korean ginseng seeds were characterized by their high lipid and protein content (lipids, 42.6% FW; proteins, 41.0% FW). When using thermal analysis, during the cooling phase, exothermic ice crystallization peaks were observed with dehisced ginseng seeds above 13.5% MCs (3.3 J/g FW). A second crystallization peak was detected following ice crystallization peaks.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology, Suwon, Korea. hkim@rda.go.kr
authors.forename: Haeng-Hoon
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jang-Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dong-Jin
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Ho-Cheol
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Ko
authors.forename: Hae-Sung
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.forename: Taesan
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Eun-Gi
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Florent
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Engelmann
mesh_terms: D015925:Cryopreservation; D003890:Desiccation; D018525:Germination; D005894:Panax / Q000737:chemistry; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry